Battle of the Frontiers

The Battle of the Frontiers occurred from 7 August to 6 September 1914 when the French general Joseph Joffre enacted Plan XVII, a series of counteroffensives against the Imperial German Army along the frontiers of Lorraine (in the east) and the Ardennes (in the north). The French offensive was a failure, and the French were forced to withdraw past the Meuse River.

Background
In the first week of 1914, five French armies mobilized on the country's eastern borders, ready to implement General Joseph Joffre's Plan XVII. French mobilization was efficiently conducted. The French First and Second armies faced Alsace and Lorraine, the provinces lost by France to Germany in 1871. The other three armies took up positions from Verdun northward. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was stationed to their left at Maubeuge.

The French anticipated a German move through southern Belgium, but not the large-scale sweeping movement planned by Alfred von Schlieffen. By 14 August, German troops were pouring into Belgium, but General Joffre remained confident of success, dismissing fears expressed by General Charles Lanrezac, who was commanding troops on the left of the French line.

Offensive
On 8 August, French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre issued General Instruction No. 1, ordering a general offensive to open on 14 August. Two armies were to advance into Lorraine and three into the Ardennes forest and southern Belgium. By the time the order was issued, one French force had already crossed the German border. An army corps and a cavalry division under General Louis Bonneau was sent into Alsace on 7 August to take the city of Mulhouse. The Alsatians, supposedly groaning under German rule since 1871, were exepected to rise up against their oppressors. Overcoming light German resistance, Bonneau entered Mulhouse, triggering a fanfare from French propagandists euphorically celebrating the liberation of Alsace.

The Germans quickly ocounterattacked and Bonneau embarrassingly scampered back across the French border, where he became the first of many French generals in the war to be dismissed by Joffre. A hastily organized Army of Alsace retook Mulhouse, but the French effort in Alsace was overtaken by events farther north and soon abandoned.

Attempt on Lorraine
The main French offensive opened in Lorraine on 14 August. The French First and Second Armies crossed the border, advancing with banners and bands playing. The German Sixth and Seventh Armies withdrew, fighting stiff delaying actions in which their machine guns took a heavy toll of the brightly-clad French infantry. The Schlieffen Plan dictated that the Germans should hold prepared defensive positions at Morhange and Sarrebourg, but Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, commanding in Lorraine, obtained permission from the German General Staff to launch a counteroffensive.

Forced back
On 20 August, German infantry moved forward after a concentrated artillery bombardment. Stunned by the power of the German heavy guns, the French Second Army reeled back from Morhange, forcing the First Army back as well. By 23 August, the French troops, much depleted in numbers, had been thrown back to their starting points on the Meurthe River.

By then, the French Third and Fourth Armies were engaged farther north, with similarly disastrous results. They marched into the heavily wooded Ardennes expecting to achieve surprise and find it lightly held. For the Germans, this sector formed the innermost part of their great wheeling movement through Belgium. Their Fourth and Fifth Armies, repsectively commanded by Albrecht, Duke of Wurttemberg and Crown Prince Wilhelm, were advancing in the opposite direction from the French. German reconnaissance aircraft reported the presence of French troops, alerting the Germans to the imminence of battle.

Depending on cavalry for reconnaissance, the French plunged forward, believing that, as Joffre's headquarters informed them, "no serious opposition need be anticipated." On 22 August, the opposing armies collided in morning fog. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. The rapid fire of the French 75mm field guns slaughtered German troops caught on open ground, but the French came off worse. They were too often thrown forward in futile bayonet charges and reluctant to dig trenches, the only effective protection against artillery and machine gun fire. The French 3rd Colonial Division lost 11,000 of its 15,000 men in a day. Despite receiving orders from Joffre to resume their advance in the Ardennes, the French armies fell back in disarray behind the Meuse River.

End of the offensive
By 24 August, the French offensive laid down in Plan XVII had clearly failed. On the attack, French forces had proved naive, launching infantry assaults without artillery support and without adequate reconnaissance. Lack of heavy guns and entrenching equipment had proved fatal defects. Forced on the defensive, however, the French troops fought like tigers. The Germans, in their turn, discovered how difficult it was to assault determinedly held defensive positions. By 26 August, the French had halted their enemy in front of the town of Nancy.

Aftermath
At the same time that French offensive had failed in Lorraine and the Ardennes, French and British forces encountered the main German armies advancing through Belgium. The French Fifth Army, under General Charles Lanrezac, fought the German Second Army at the Battle of the Sambre. On Lanrezac's left, the British Expeditionary Force confronted the German First Army at Mons. Overwhelmed by the German forces, the French and British began a retreat from Belgium that took them south of Paris.

French recovery
Departing from the Schlieffen Plan, Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke provided reinforcements to continue the German offensive in Lorraine. In desperate fighting in early September, France's eastern line held in front of Nancy and Verdun. Meanwhile, Joffre set about rearranging his armies. On 5 September, he launched a major counteroffensive at the First Battle of the Marne.